Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Has justice been really served for Maureen?

I was totally shocked and at the same time pissed off to what i heard on the local news that a convicted murderer after 13 years was released after President Arroyo approved the commutation of his sentence. Convicted killer Claudio Teehankee was arrested for killing Maureen Hultman and and John Roland Chapman on July 13, 1991. The victims Maureen and John and another friend Leino were coming home from a party at around 3am along Dasmarinas Village in Makati City. Teehankee drew out his gun and shot Chapman in the chest, killing him instantly, he then shot Leino, hitting him in the jaw and shot Maureen on the temple. Leino survived while Maureen died 2 months later. The murder case gained wide publicity this is due to the fact that Claudio Teehankee, Jr was the son of the late former Chief justice Claudio Teehnakee, Sr and the brother of former Justice Undersecretary Manuel Teehankee. In short he came from the most influential family. It took 4 years before the conviction was made. The judge sentenced him to reclusion perpetua(life imprisonment). Based on the Revised Penal Code of the Philippines, Teehankee should serve at least 40 years incarceration. The Hultman's and the rest of the filipino people like me were shocked when the Philippine President granted executive clemeny to Teehankee. The laws says that a convict can only be eligible for pardon if he already served 30 years imprisonment and if the convict already reached the age of 70. Teehankee has just served less than 20 years and he's only 62 years old. Therefore, the convicted killer is still not eligible for executive clemency. So what happened then? Why was he given clemency? What has happened to our justice system? Speculations says that the President is close to the Teehankee family. Though, Philippine Justice secretary Raul Gonzales was quick to defend the decision of Mrs. Arroyo saying that Teehankee has served his due and eligible for clemency. They also defended that Teehankee had a good behavior while in prison. That is full of crap! There are a lot of people who are in prison who deserve pardon than Teehankee. But because they are are not powerful and influential people like Teehankee, a lot of prisoners who deserve clemency are denied of it. That goes to show how unfair our justice system works. I just could not understand why the President granted his release. What on earth was she thinking? The man committed a heinous crime. How would the President feel if it happened to anyone of his family? Would she be happy about it? Would she still grant clemency to him? It's a shame that this is how our justice system works.